An Orange Police sergeant knocks on the door to a home of a parent whose child is a chronic truant in this file photo from May 2011.

Buena Park police officers and an Orange County District Attorney investigator look over paperwork before approaching a Buena Park resident who was arrested in a truancy sweep in this April 2013 file photo.

She was living in a group home in Oakland struggling with a shortage of food, thieving roommates and few hopes for a bright future.

It wasn’t until a teacher took an interest in her at age 15 that she began to find solace and hope on her high school campus.

“I went from being a problem to being a person and it changed everything for me,” Daniels said during the Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court Summit on Wednesday at the Marriott in Anaheim.

“Never should there just be one person attempting to change a life,” Daniels said. “We all have a role.”

About 340 representatives from the justice, child welfare, probation, education and mental health systems in 32 California counties gathered Tuesday and Wednesday in Anaheim to discuss truancy and invent better ways to combat the problem.

Dealing with absenteeism is a priority in the California Department of Education, said state Superintendent Tom Torlakson.

“Staying in school is not just the smart thing to do, it’s the right thing to do morally,” Torlakson said, adding that restoring summer school and art, music and drama programs will help students stay in school.

“We have a great opportunity but daunting challenges,” Torlakson said. “How do we break the school-to-prison pipeline?”

Officials from each county developed an action plan during the summit – the start of a plan to reduce truancy in California – which Torlakson’s department will review.

“Last year, 1 million California elementary school students were truant, and 40 percent of the truant students in California were elementary school students,” California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.

In Orange County, 100,600 students were considered truant in 2011-12, or 19.3 percent, data shows. Statewide, more than 1.8 million students were truant, or 28.5 percent, the same year.

Students are considered truant if they miss more than 30 minutes of school without a valid excuse such as a doctor’s appointment more than 3 times a year.

“It’s critical we try to get these kids back in school before they become involved in our criminal system,” said Kim Menninger, an Orange County Superior Court judge and one of 11 O.C. representatives at the Summit.

When children miss days in kindergarten to third grade, they lose vital learning opportunities and often never get caught up, said Susan Holl, deputy director of children and family service at Orange County’s Social Services Agency.

The majority of truant students aren’t missing class simply because they don’t like school. Truancy serves as a red flag that the child needs help, said Dave Dziejowski, an assistant public defender in Orange County.

Students skipping school at a young age may have lost a parent, been a victim of sexual assault or suffered trauma related to domestic violence or addiction in the home. Older children have other reasons – they’re tasked with babysitting younger siblings while parents work multiple jobs, have their own children to look after, or they might have jobs themselves.

“It’s a symptom of another problem, typically,” Dziejowski said. “This is an opportunity in a non-criminalized setting to assess those child’s needs, address them and get them the resources and assistance that are going to effectively help them navigate the problems they have. What will happen as a result of that is the child will start going back to school.”

California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye assembled the summit after being inspired by the National Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships, which she attended in New York in 2012.